Tellus

Tellus: (tel’us), n. 1. [Latin] earth, soil, and the land; a country; the world. 2. a collection of Willamette University student’s insights, stories, photos and thoughts from their experiences studying abroad.

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Of all sites in Prague that I went to over and over again due to showing visitors around the city, the Lennon Wall was the one that never, ever got old. This was partially due to the accidental hilarity when we arrived at the Lennon Wall and my visitor would remark that the entire time I had talked about the Lennon Wall, they thought I was instead referring to the Lenin Wall (the Czech Republic being a former Communist country and all), which has quite the different connotation. But mostly the reason I always loved visiting the Lennon Wall is because it was never the same twice.
The Lennon Wall came about when the Czech Republic was under the control of the Communist Party, and was undeniably a show of rebellion. The government would white-wash the wall, and the next day it would be covered in graffiti again. And although the Communist Party has not been in control of the country in nearly two decades, the wall still stands as a symbol of freedom and most of all of taking control of one’s own life. It is still added to daily, and each and every time I went there were new Beatles lyrics or paintings of birds or general graffiti and messages in multiple languages. They were often small changes, but they overall made the wall strikingly different each time. This is something the ubiquitous “they” will tell you happens to yourself when you study abroad; you may not feel like you’ve changed dramatically, but all of those little changes can add up to a lot. One just hopes it’s a change for the better.